Trading

[Part_Timer]

     How many of you have a trading circle going on?  Here is what I mean.  I have a friend Aaron who is about 23 and is trying to start a home remodeling business.  His wife walked out on him and his son a while ago so he's strapped for money.  He keeps borrowing my little utility trailer to haul his scaffolding around.  The other day he came down to give me an estimate on fixing some wind damage to the house.  We ended up trading my trailer for fixing the house. 
   Another friend Chris works part time for Aaron to help out.  Chris helps me sawmill and comes out and helps with the logging from time to time.  The other day he asked of he could trade his time helping me for some cottonwood lumber for a new garage. Sure so I call a neighbor who needs some trees removed and swing a deal to get the cottonwood for him for free all Chris has to do is help me get rid of all the debris from the trees.  Now Chris worked a deal with Aaron to have him help set up the garage if Chris will help him with a 45sq roofing job.
   When we remove Chris's cottonwoods I also got 2 or 3 decent sized Osage trees in the deal for a flooring project I have in mind.  Chris is going to help me with those as part of the deal.
   Another friend Neil wants a butcher block for his kitchen.  He is running short on cash and traded 4 bottles of homemade peach wine for the block.  This is fine by me because I love his peach wine. 
   I'm going to saw a BIG ash for a friend a week from Thursday.  There won't be a trade here because he tought me how to be an electrician and I owe him big time for that.  He said that it is 57" across the butt and 14 foot long.   I'm going to go have a look today if the weather clears up.
   Anyway I was wondering if any of you are running the same type of deals


Tom

[Dan_Shade]

I like the barter method of business, it instills a bit of a comradarie.

it's only good when it swings both ways, though.

[crtreedude]

We do a lot of trading down here. It seems to be how most things get done. We needed to get some trees dropped and moved because they were old and not worth much. But, we were on a deadline so Hector had a person with a bulldozer who also owned a LT15 woodmizer come over to help. We had a lot of wood only good for formalata (wood for framing concrete) and we really had no need for it. We traded that wood for him cutting up the hardwood for us. We even had a dead Mahogany to cut up!

Anyway, for the formalata, we had the road finished that makes a loop on the finca, all our wood cut up and a few other things! No money changed hands.

The other thing was during the planting, we had about 42 acres that needed the grass cut down so we could kill it (it is an Brazilian grass that will kill trees) . Instead of hiring in workers and using weedwackers, etc. Hector got the local farmers to send over their cows - we had a bunch. And the local farmers paid us some for the grazing too! I think we got a new horse out of one of the deals.

It caused some confusion back at the office because we had budgeted a lot of money to plant the trees - and we weren't getting any bills! We figured the shoe was going to drop sometime - and we didn't know how much it was going to be. Then we found out that about half of what we budgeted ended up not being needed. We sure didn't mind...   ;)

[Paschale]

I do this with my brothers.  For example, one of my brothers has put in several woodstoves, and I'm planning on putting one in my shop this fall, so I figured I'd ask for his help.  In return, I went over to his place and helped him to demo his old bathroom and put in a new floor.  Another brother is an electrician, so he's going to be coming over to help me run some electric in the shop, and in return, I'll go help him around his place doing whatever he needs done.  We all enjoy working together, and we find that doing projects with a brother sure beats doing 'em by yourself!  And from time to time, all of us brothers get together to help our folks out with some projects that they have.  You can get a lot more done that way, and it's much more enjoyable.   8)

[Bro. Noble]

I always remembered neighbors helping on another whin I was a kid.  I don't remember any money changing hands and seemed like there was a lot of food and fellowship involved. 8)  That was before good roads and television :-\

Well,  ever since I started farming on my own back in '69'  I was always looking for someone that I could trade work with.  The first one was Johnny Nicholson and he became like a father to me.  We traded a lot of work and dinners,  but I always felt guilty because he knew how to do about anything and had the equipment to do it.  He died last winter and even though I hadn't seen him for 15 or 20 years,  we exchanged Christmas letters and I sure miss him.

After Johnny,  there were several attempts to trade work that didn't develop into a continuous thing for one reason or another.

The last attempt at doing this was successful I suppose.  Jim was a good friend and neighbor and we traded work for 5 or six years till he moved back to California :(  We both helped each other some,  but most of our trading was us providing Jim with lumber that he needed for various projects and repairs.  He only put his bulls with his beef herd for a few months of the year and I always had a few cows that I couldn't get bred by AI,  so I would trade the use of one of his bulls for lumber.  Well I put the pencil to this trade and it seemed fair enough,  but there was something about it that never seemed right.

I was always getting hot and dirty and sweaty cutting that lumber and here would come Jim all fresh and clean hauling that bull over to us--------both of them with a big grin on their faces :

[Part_Timer]

Sounds to me like the bulls are getting best part of any deal I've heard yet. :D

[Quartlow]

Wifes cousin and I are always doin things for each other, I would be strapped if I didn't have use of that JD with the loader on it.  :D On the other hand I always seem to have time to get some fieldwork started before he gets home from work, or like the other night he was trying to get beans off before it rained and I just went down and did the barn work for him.

Today he helped me get the outer barrel wrapped around my outdoor woodburner I'm building, what goes around comes around, have 3  nephews that always seem to find time to lend a hand, and My brother too

[Coon]

Quartlow do you have pics of the outdoor heater that you are building?  You know how we all like pics around here. ;D

[Brucer]

'Bout 30 years ago I needed some welding done. I asked the shop foreman at the company I worked for if he could recommend anyone in my neck of the woods. Turned out there was a guy with a little shop set up in his "back yard", just around the corner from me. So I got him to do my work, and we got to talking, and he said he was in a boundary dispute with his neighbour. I told him I wasn't a legal surveyor, but I could borrow the equipment and give him a petty good idea where his property line ran. "Well, if you'r going to do that, I can't very well charge you for this welding", he says. That led to a couple of decades of helping each other out, until he retired and sold his place. No one ever kept track of who "owed" what to who -- we just did each other favours according to our abilities. Neither of us ever felt we were being taken advantage of.

I've seen a lot of  "trades" where the person who did the first task gave it his best. The other party, having got what he wanted, attempted to shortcut his share of the work. "Too busy right now", or, "That'll be good enough -- what's he complaining about anyway."

I reckon trading works when all the parties involved are conscientous and willing to give their best effort. As soon as you get someone who simply wants to take, then you end up with hard feelings and little satisfaction.

[woodbowl]

I've seen a lot of  "trades" where the person who did the first task gave it his best. The other party, having got what he wanted, attempted to shortcut his share of the work. "Too busy right now", or, "That'll be good enough -- what's he complaining about anyway."

Brucer, I've found that this is the small price, to find out who your friends really are. If I lose 99 favors and gain only one friend ............. I've got one friend. A lot of people can't count their friends on one hand. Friendship is much more valuable than money.

[crtreedude]

Well said Woodbowl,

I find that doing people favors is a great way to find out the good people. I am always looking for people who are thinking of others first, instead of themselves. This yardstick is rarely wrong. People who will stab you in the back are those who who are always thinking of themselves.

Being a good neighbor is important to me and helping those who I can help. I find that by helping those who also help others, it goes a lot further. Trades with people like that seem to always turn out well.

For years in software, I would hirer people with ability but without the degree and make them apprentices. These people would work really hard and be totally reliable because they were thankful for the opportunity. Then, when I needed something, they would be there for me. I got some really good jobs because of these people.

I really think life and success is very easy sometimes - if you be the kind of person who thinks of other people and look for the same people to do business with. Well, it sort of hard sometimes NOT to do well.

When we started our company here, much of our early success was because I had so many friends who were wanted to pay back favors. I had people review my business plan, give me very good advice, all sorts of stuff. I even had people buy trees with us not because they thought it was that sure of a thing, but because they wanted to be involved. Thankfully it did work out and so they are doubly happy.

Much of what Harold and I are doing is based on trading. He has knowledge - I have resources and contacts. We help each other out, and we do much better.